She Shoots Straight
(Huang jia nu jiang, 1990)

Corey Yuen

Hong Kong

89 min, color, Cantonese (English subtitles)

Review © 2007 Branislav L. Slantchev

This is one of the classics in the "girls with guns" genre, otherwise known as the "battling babes" from the featurette on the HKL DVDs. These films tend to have very little variety when it comes to plot but narrative is not their raison d'etre to begin with, so I won't even comment on that. Essentially, these are action movies that mark the return (as it turns out, temporary) of the strong female to Chinese films. Yes, you read that right. I said "return" rather than "introduction" or "invention" because unlike Western cinema where the latter two descriptions are more apt, the Chinese have had a very long tradition with female leads. In fact, part of the macho cinema of the 1970s (e.g., the oeuvre of Chang Cheh, among others) was in reaction to that dominance of the female as the central character.

Gratuitous shot Carina Lau toting a gun	Sorry, madam, there is no discount for riding on the roof

This is not to say that the 1980s girls with guns action films did not innovate. Far from it: these are films that feature women not only in central roles but also doing things traditionally in the male preserve: like blowing up things, shooting up people, and in general kick (mostly male) ass. The film are a bizarre concoction, no doubt about that. Having been produced in a society very much dominated by men (much more so than the Western tradition), the films are decidedly ambivalent. They would show women as tough and yet extremely vulnerable: they are apt to burst into tears almost as often as bust someone's skull apart. They are shown facing formidable obstacles at work, with frequent harassment from the old boys' network, and while they struggle to advance their careers, not only do their love lives tend to suffer (if they even had any to begin with) but they are invariably shown as pining, either knowingly or subconsciously, for a "proper" mating with a man.

This bike not approved for paved road driving	Honey, let's go bareback tonight

No matter how bumbling and stupid the guys seem (and often they are exaggerated as buffoons), even the man with the most off-putting moustache would somehow weasel himself into the favors of a woman that by any stretch of imagination should be about as far out of his league as to be in a different sport altogether. If it's not the love interest, then there's going to be a sibling to adore or a father to dote upon. In short, these women are not as independent as they may appear to the untrained eye. And in fact, far from affirming a new role in society, these films essentially gloss over what has tended to become an additional role for women. That is, whereas in the past they were expected to look after domestic affairs, cook, keep the household running, and so on. Now they get to have careers in addition to all that. Yep, it is still a man's world, baby.

This guy does not approve of the floating exchange rate	Now, now, let's all be nice to the gweilo

She Shoots Straight is a fairly typical entry and illustrates just about every point I made above, plus it throws in some extra complications just to make it more fun. Joyce Godenzi is inspector Mina Kao, a fairly competent police officer on the rise, and the wife of her colleague Tsung-Pao (Tony Leung Ka-Fai). The film opens with their wedding and immediately some problems arise with Tsung-Pao's sister Ling (Carina Lau Ka-Ling). To say that she's not happy about the marriage would be to characterize a sequence of pouts, tantrums, screams, geysers of tears, and the occasional public humiliation, as slight, perhaps even endearing, displays of affection. I am not going to proffer some explanation that would border on incest but she is concerned about her bro way above and beyond the call of sibling duty. Whatever the case may be, she makes Mina's life quite miserable, mostly by harming herself in the process.

Sandra Ng understands the logic of superior argument	Gratuitous shot of Carina Lau abused by her dear brother

There are three other sisters, Jui (Angile Leung Wan-Yui), Lai (Sarah Lee Lai-Yui), and Ju (Sandra Ng Kwun-Yu) but they are relegated to supporting roles and mostly serve as the background against which Ling's jealousy would appear even more unreasonable. Tsung-Pao, being the typical indecisive character that Leung tends to portray, does not do much until the fecal matter hits the rotary air-transposing electrical device. After Ling's impetuousness almost botches an undercover operation (because she's unwilling to let herself be groped by a repulsive lecherous guy in a bar... which is entirely appropriate until one realizes that she's supposed to be an escort), Superintendent Lau (Lau Chi-Wing) decides to put her on leave. After Min implores him not to make the news public until after the birthday party of her mother-in-law (to which he agrees), Lau promptly calls in Ling and suspends her. (Because Lau wants to get Mina, so he's apparently trying to break up her marriage.) Ling naturally flies off the handle, accuses Mina of ruining her career, and gets slapped by her brother for her trouble. (Incidentally, this was one of the best scenes in the film: Carina delivers the shocked look, a mixture of disbelief and panic about her brother siding with his gweilo wife, with such conviction that it was painful to watch, it's almost as if you've walked in on an embarrassing scene you are not supposed to witness.

Random violence against a boobytrap	Me - Tarzan, me - not very alive

She storms off, but not because taking a phone call that Mina was supposed to get. The call is from a murderous gang of Vietnamese illegal immigrants whose robbery attempt the police thwarted (the action Ling nearly scotched). Having lost one of their dear friends, they are now bent on revenge. Ling, showing for the umpteenth time that she does not have the temperament for police work, dashes off to meet these "informants" and is quickly followed by Mina and Tsung-Pao. In the ensuing fight, Tsung-Pao is killed. Although we had seen some fairly good action in the first fight (when a gang attempts to kidnap a princess under police protection) and then during the club robbery, now we are all set for the final showdown between Mina, Ling, and the Vietnamese led by Hua (Yuen Wah) with the help of this sister Ying (Agnes Aurelio).

The painful(ly protracted) tragic birthday celebration	Tang Pik-Wan expresses dissatisfaction with police procedures

Unfortunately, Corey Yuen, being the sadist that he is, will first put us through 10 minutes of excruciating boredom: Mother Huang's (Tang Pik-Wan) birthday party. For some unfathomable reason, Ling and Mina decide not to tell anyone about Tsung-Pao's death (this may be some weird Chinese "keeping one's face" thing or it may just be poor scripting, I don't know). Instead they try to pretend everything's fine and have to suffer through inane toasts and at least two hundred references to Tsung-Pao, from toasting in his honor to saving a dumpling or a chicken leg for him. The sequence is so overdone, I really wish someone just broke down and ended it all. Unfortunately, even when the truth is revealed, it is not over. Instead, we are treated to sniffling, weeping, and general agony. Well, it was supposed to look like agony but Corey Yuen does not know how to handle dramatic scenes very well, so it all look quite fake and off-putting. We even get to see a speech or two! Awful stuff.

Rarely is there a more convincing villain than Yuen Wah	Obligatory girl-with-gun shot of Joyce Godenzi

Then it's mercifully over and after some rather incongruous comic moments (Mother Huang uppercutting Lau when he takes her girls off the case on the sensible ground that they are after vengeance not lawful arrests, or flashing him the finger for no discernible reason whatsoever), the film finally gets to the obligatory big last fight. Actually, I forgot to mention one little detail that shows, for the umpteenth time, the confused attitude of the film-makers to all those strong women. Near the beginning of the film, there's a short and funny scene in which Tsung-Pao tries to convince Mina to have unprotected sex:

Tsung-Pao: What would you do if we only had five minutes left to live?
Mina (quite aware what he, or any other guy, would have in mind, continues brushing her teeth): ...
Tsung-Pao: I would make love to you!
Mina: Great! And what about the other four minutes?

Despite her husband's polished seduction technique, Mina reminds him that they are not ready for children yet, and that it would hurt her career if she got pregnant. Tsung-Pao then secretly punctures the condom and, as we shall learn later, does knock her up.

Hammering in all the tight places	Carina gets Rwandan on some random extra

With her husband dead, Mina delivers the baby (in another unnecessary painful scene... as in painful to watch). Ok, so Tsung-Pao is dead so one can't really get on his case for being a bastard, which he was. But what does the film have to say about the husband depriving his own wife of a choice that should rightfully be hers at least as much, if not more so, than his? Mina's decision to have the baby is understandable given that she's not going to be able to have another child with the man she loved. So let's not interpret that decision as anything more than what it is. But the film is quite clear about the message it wants to send: Mina almost did not get to have a child with Tsung-Pao because of her careerism. In other words, having put work before family (or, more accurately, before her hubby's desires), she nearly got deprived of true happiness which, as we all know, for a woman consists of having a baby. Far from commenting unfavorably (I am not going to say condemning because I am not sure many men would not sympathize with Tsung-Pao), the film actually plainly makes him her savior! If it weren't for his sneakiness, Mina's obsession with her career would have rendered her unhappy forever! I should be forgiven if I don't quite see a ringing endorsement of gender equality in this. Letting women hammer guys (literally, on the head, with a huge hammer), slash their throats with dull machetes, or just overpower them in a fight simply isn't enough if one want to interpret these films as affirming the role of women in society. They are more like adolescent fantasies of a bunch of guys who want to see strong women but still want to reassure themselves that despite their exterior, these girls would still need "a man" to function properly.

Dastardly Vietnamese behavior	Agnes Aurelio psyching out her opponent

The acting is exactly what you would expect from such a film. Carina is the only one who is equally at home with dialogue and action (her machete-wielding on the ship is exceedingly brutal). The only one who was worse than Joyce was Agnes: you just can't get a body-builder perform without years of training and then giving them no dialogue. The final fight between her and Joyce is pretty decent even though the editing makes it plain that Joyce cannot fight, she just does not have the moves. Still, even that scene is worth watching for the flip'n'kick trick she does on Agnes. And filming actors (stunt men) crash on the ground without any buffering is what we all want to see in HK films anyway: none of that sissy-ass show the beginning of the fall and then cut to a closeup after landing—we know they fell on some cushy mattress. In the action department, at least, the film delivers on its promises. As I said, I actually preferred watching Carina.

Joyce gets politically incorrect with the immigration	Sixty-nine, Hong Kong-style

The Hong Kong Legends DVD is, as usual, very nicely done. The film looks pristine and is presented in its OAR of 1.85:1 and is anamorphic. Of course, it's also PAL and region 2, so you need to be multi-region to watch it but then again which reader of this site isn't? The Cantonese soundtrack is offered as either DD5.1 or DTS (naturally, I went for the latter) and even though there's an English dub (does anyone bother with these?), I watched the film with the optional English subtitles. There are plenty of extras, among which is a Joyce Godenzi biography, trailers, a brief chat with Sammo Hung about working with Joyce, a small gallery of "Hong Kong Heroines" (short clips) and the aforementioned "Battling Babes" featurette. Overall, a great package for a pretty good film. Watch it for the gritty fights and ignore the supposed feminist messages which simply aren't there.

January 21, 2007